A Review by Phil Calabro
2005, 20th Century Fox/Regency, Dir. Rob Bowman - Starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp, Natassia Malthe, Bob Sapp, Chris Ackerman, Colin Cunningham, Hiro Kanagawa, Mark Houghton, Kurt Max Runte
It's official: superhero movies are now a dying fad. They pop up every month or two, with no redeeming or original features whatsoever. Marvel Comics must be having a field day at their department after all these buy-outs, but in the end they're damaging their own reputation. For years, comic veterans like Stan Lee and Frank Miller sketched out brilliant ideas for heros and heroines, but now we find Hollywood giving them a Queer Eye makeover and a template plot. At the end of 'Daredevil', we find the beautiful Elektra dead. But somehow, her blind sensei/Terence Stamp healed her to make a few more bucks. It's reasonable if you go into a movie like this and get your filling of adrenaline, but this time the crew gypped us. 'Elektra' shouldn't even be considered an action movie, considering that there are two fights altogether and little conflict between good and evil in the first place. Director Rob Bowman, who did the horrendously loud 'Reign of Fire' in 2002, would rather document an in-depth look at Elektra's troubled past and her place in society. In the end, 'Elektra' is an uneventful, unmotivated piece that lacks a coherent plot and most importantly, action.
As I said before, Elektra (Garner) is brought back to life by her sensei Stick (Stamp) who has exercised her mental and physical abilities for several years. Elektra is a professional assassin, who works with agent McCabe (Cunningham), and has been sent out on her most recent mission. After moving down to an isolated beachhouse, she gets acquainted with a small family made up of father Mark (Visnjic) and daughter Abby (Prout). Her job is to assassinate both of them, but she finds the evidence on their past lacking. What Elektra learns is that a group of ninja cultists known as The Hand, led by Kirigi (Lee), are tracking Abby. Abby is a child prodigy - skilled in martial arts and other powers - also known as 'The Treasure'. It is up to Elektra, who finds similarities between herself and Abby, to protect the family and stop The Hand from causing any damage.
Jennifer Garner is stunningly beautiful, very talented, and puts effort into her work. However, her work turns up short because of bad scripts (how many times have I said that recently?) Elektra is portrayed so much more differently than in Daredevil. For the first 20-30 minutes, we watch as her OCD kicks in and she lines up her household items in neat little piles. She meditates, snaps her cell phone shut, and has terrible dreams about her childhood that symbolize nothing in the end. It's non-formulaic, true, but it's garbage in the same manner. It's another example of scripts trying to be desperately complex, but still allowing the action to trump it anyway. Garner has sex appeal, and puts a lot of that into her character, but it sizzles only temporarily. More of a femme fatale than Wonder Woman, she's a new-age independent woman - she'll do it her own way. Will Yun Lee, who has been in the terrible 'Torque' and 'Die Another Day', is desperately screaming for a good role. There's something about his acting that I admire - it feels out of place. He can angry and peaceful at the same time, almost in homage to old kung-fu films. But the whole movie has a mood that swings off his character, so his talent is wasted.
To emphasize again, the action in this movie is lacking. And when there is a hint of action, expect to see the best reenactment of 'The Matrix' you've seen yet. That means the bullet-dodgings, slow-motion explosions, big rooms with lots of fighting space and air time, the works. Sorry if I ruined anything, but it's a forewarning - don't expect a lot of cool fight sequences. So many of the characters are laughable. Typhoid Mary, played by Natassia Malthe, is a gothic chick who is there primarily to get some girl-on-girl action with Elektra. Her power? Whatever she touches dies and withers away - so wouldn't the ground she walks upon dry up? Isn't her power naturally defective to everything? Another character known as Tattoo, played by Chris Ackerman, has the ability to transmogify the animal tattoo on his body into real animals. In a sight that looks like a case of bad constipation, he cringes thousands of snakes from his back. His facial expression is to die for.
I realize I'm rambling, but that's because I really have nothing more to say. 'Elektra' is too unmotivated to actually make a point or present a coherent plotline. Instead, it feels like a ripoff of every other superhero flick to date, makes a big joke out of the main character. It's a worth a good nap or two, nothing more.
